For me, this dream scenario was triggered by a conversation in my waking life where, in speaking to a friend, I shared too much information with him. Instead of opening his eyes to a different view of life, it disturbed his equilibrium and upset his worldview. This brought out the Inquisition in him. When a person doesn’t understand something, they can view it as scary, or dangerous, or strange.

One way to understand the lower self is that it’s the physical life we’re born into. The lower self is our planetary existence, dealing with food, shelter, procreation – all our animal instincts and senses. But it’s not meant to be the whole of our life, it is instead the platform through which to take care of physical needs so we can then tend to the growth and flowering of our higher self.

Unfortunately, for many reasons throughout history, humans have become separated from this truth. We, as a species, have become like a plant that never flowers. What this looks like in day-to-day living is a life focused on the personal, ego identity, where everything is seen as happening to “us.” It’s the part of us that thinks life should unfold according to “our” plans, rather than our being involved in, and an integral part of, the greater unfolding of the plans of Creation.

So this is a tremendous difference in viewpoint. And a life lived only in the lower self aspect is blind to, or veiled from, the greater truth behind what we see and experience in the physical realms. Because we, in our culture and education, have become so estranged from the idea of developing our higher selves, any information that delves into that arena comes as a shock to our system – if we’re not open to it.

That manifests in the world as closed-mindedness, and a desire to label such spiritual values as something bad. The response to what is unknown or unfamiliar is fear. In the scenario we’re discussing, it’s a fear of losing credibility in terms of how another person or group sees themselves. And we’re all familiar with the desperate measures some will go to to keep themselves from having to contend with that which is beyond their consciousness, or their ability to understand.

What I’m describing is one reason why the inner is hidden from the world in most religions. A person who’s caught up in the outer, made-up world, where everything is reflected and illusory, can’t be content or at peace with themselves if their mind is unable to pigeonhole everything in the outer environment.

In other words, the unknown has to be compartmentalized and labeled to make a person feel safe again. By talking to my friend about things he couldn’t control or pigeonhole, I’m actually violating his (false) convictions about things. This makes him want to stamp it out, or put it in a safe container so he doesn’t feel threatened. If he can’t do that, then it’s a danger and he can’t be trusted.

He doesn’t mean to be untrustworthy. That’s just how it is in terms of the inner and the outer in relationship to that which is more conscious. That’s why it’s said that a person who lives in the outer, and only relates to things flowing from the outer toward the inner, is unable to see and hear their inner aspects because they don’t allow that possibility for themselves – they’re closed to it.

Part of the fear in this situation is a sense that the new insight or information will cause them to lose themselves – it goes against what they consider “real,” which is their idea of life in a world that’s restricted to their brain and five senses.

If a person is, instead, able to work with their heart, these reactions and defense mechanisms aren’t needed, and then in life the inner can come into the illusion of the outer and create changes in life. It requires letting go of the idea that we, in some way, have real control over life.

This is why it’s said in the Bible (in Matthew 7:6) “Do not… cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.” A person doesn’t mean to be unconscious, but in order to justify their existence to themselves, and to keep any doubt from arising, this is how they must be.

This exists on all levels in Creation. That’s why there’s a hiddenness that exists. It’s imperative to protect that which is real, this hiddenness, from that which is attached to the illusion. This too is part of how the world is designed.

The truly real is hidden from a human being’s lower self, and now I understand the reason why. The truth is too dynamic a force. The lower self, based in the outer, always stands against the truth.

So the dream is pointing out that, even under the most innocent of circumstances (a casual conversation) there comes a time when true consciousness must remain concealed from the average person who’s caught up in the physical world. And now is no different than during the time of Christ and the crucifixion.

This is where we find ourselves, and I must be careful now that I’ve exposed myself to my friend. I’ve violated the rule, the principle of “Solitude in the Crowd.” Now I know why I must hide and protect that which is real, because it’s too much for a humanity caught up in the illusion. It causes such a humanity to do whatever it takes to keep the inner from touching the outer.

John: Next I had a series of quick dreams and each one has to do with something that’s out of the ordinary.

In this image I see a sack of rubble. I’m trying to figure out what happened. As I pause, I realize that the rubble is the remains of a majestic sculpture of a horse, but now it’s all crumbled in a sack.

This horse, as a sculpture, projects its powerful characteristics. In a dream, a horse has a quality of causing something to unfold. A horse moves with power, and figures out what needs to be and helps to facilitate that.

Something has happened, though, because all the power and majesty has been turned to rubble – the power is gone. The horse has somehow transformed into something unintelligible.

When the mobility and power of the horse exist, there is a means to resolve conditions. With this gone, all is lost.

This dream is adding to the theme that for change to occur, the power and nobility must be present within us. When the outer factors dictate, our power gets drained and nothing is possible.

As we saw in the dream yesterday (see Presence of the Heart) where the conversation with the neighbor drained me, whenever we get drawn in to outer events in a personal way, we lose the inner linkage and connection. It’s actually a very subtle shift because, if we are open to it, everything in the outer. i.e., the wind, trees, plants, animals, etc, can communicate with us, telling us what they want or need in order to be further groomed, or allowed their outplay.

In the next dream I see myself entering into a scenario that started long ago. In fact, it started so long ago, I’m not sure how I’m meant to proceed. I’m wondering what’s going on and where everything is.

Suddenly, in a flash, I’m able to glance all the way back to the beginning and see that when this scenario started, there was a wonderful, fragrant scent associated with it.

In other words, it was like someone gave it a start with a quality of grace and love, or that something had touched it. It means that it had a greater life than its own propelled into it, to cause it to unfold.

All this information was lost to me when I began, but by seeing it, it’s all I need. I now know that there is more to this process than meets the eye, and I just need to pick up the thread where I find it and proceed.

The wonderful nature of this fragrance tells me that I’m on the right track. It tells me that I’m not just dealing with something unimportant or tangential. No, it’s all meant to be. This all has to do with something as it is intended.

The importance here is the idea of going along with the thread as I find it now. Wherever, and whenever, we discover the true meaning of life, we are meant to join the process where it is. It’s meant to happen, or there wouldn’t have been the grace of the special fragrance at the inception long, long ago. The heartfulness of what is designed to be is hidden and dormant, but I now know it’s not actually lost. It’s reawakening.

In the next dream I see an image in which something has been created and copies are being made, one at a time, by a very slow copier. The person involved with this doesn’t really seem to know what’s been done or they wouldn’t be acting like this: they’re not going to make any headway making one copy at a time on some slow motion machine.

In other words, something more has now quickened and is ready to unfold. I ask the person, “What are you trying to do? Why are you making the copies one page at a time?”

To get this out, so that something more can happen – which is something I suddenly know is wanted but hasn’t yet been admitted – I know the completed manuscript needs to be taken to a place that can copy, collate, and staple it together quickly. Then all that needs to be done is hand them out.

The faster this is done, the quicker something more can unfold, i.e., the next step can occur.

Here I’m being shown that the thing that needs to unfold is a done deal. I seem to be the last to get the memo, so this scenario has to do with completing various tasks that will allow the bigger picture to unfold.

These three images together give a nice summation of where we find ourselves as humans today. We need to connect to and keep the power within us, or we will find ourselves drained and everything will turn to rubble. When we understand the purposes of human life – to be a contributing part to something much greater – we can join any time because it’s already in progress. And, finally, something new is ready to unfold, i.e., things are changing, and the sooner everyone gets the memo on that, the better off we’ll all be.

Ultimately, the thing that stands most in our way, as individuals and as a species, is that we focus completely on the realms of our physical senses – the outer life – instead of the realms of energetic essences, or, our inner, higher connections.

Jeane:In my dream it feels like I’m living in a room on an estate. Everything seems to be right there for me. I’ve had a baby; I think it’s a male, but I’m not sure. I think the father is Jack Nicholson, or someone like him; he visits occasionally – by coming down from the sky.

When I had the baby, I didn’t really know the father’s true nature, but he’s a bit on the dark side. When he visits, I always keep myself between the baby and him.

The next time he visits, I find myself swirling around in this giant, shallow sink, and I think that’s when I wake up.

John: I saw the meaning of this dream right off the bat, but the difficulty is, how do I describe it?

You’re dealing with a force in the outer world (represented by Jack Nicholson) that’s part of the ego-identity illusion. You also have the reciprocal, inner force, in the form of the baby. You’re standing in between them, protecting the baby.

For whatever reason you’ve chosen the image of Jack Nicholson to represent the outer world, perhaps because he has such a powerful identity.

Jeane: It’s almost like I want to start taking the baby out into the world, but I feel confined a bit by the Jack Nicholson energy.

John: Exactly. This image is another example of “solitude in the crowd,” or “head in the heavens, feet on the ground,” or however you’d say that. You’re using an image that has the schematic of this dichotomy between the spiritual and the physical, or the inner and the outer. The baby represents an essence, and Jack Nicholson represents an ego-type, external identification, and you’re caught in between.

So you’re neither the essence, nor the identification and, as a result, you’re in a state of amnesia. The baby is the unconscious part of you, and Jack Nicholson is the part that tries to keep involving you in making choices based in personal indulgences (psychologies, old patterns, etc.) in terms of your relationship to people and things around you.

It’s much like your dream earlier in the night (see The Lost Essence), in that you’re trying to understand how to make a fundamental shift that, really, all humans should be working toward. This is a shift from being based, as a being, in the personal, egocentric “I’m separate” view, where life consists in our personal reactions to events in the outer world, to being present in the outer world, but based in the inner, universe-connected part of us.

Your dreams don’t have the specificity of an answer, they just show the conundrum from an overall perspective, which is the way the feminine sees things (the masculine would present this issue through specific details). The image shows you have the sense of something so much more (the baby), but at the same time you’re not quite able to catch up with it because you also have the circumstances of this outer scenario (JN) that you’re taking into account.

So how do you pull the two together? How does everything come back to just the essence and yet, at the same time, you don’t destroy the creation (physical world) with the light. In other words, how do exist in the essence without disturbing anything?

Very unusual and peculiar. See, it’s very much like that “poof” dream at the beginning. The interesting thing about experiencing a dream image like this is it keeps you from taking things too seriously because, by and large, you always have the inner echo to remind you that the outer world is just an appearance or mannerism.

There’s always something behind the mannerism or appearance that has to do with where it’s coming from (the essence). The more we connect with the essence of things, the harder it becomes to take the appearance or the mannerism of the outer literally. If we catch up with the essence, on an inner level, then we’ll see what’s causing everything in the outer world to unfold.

When we experience life at this deeper level, it’s like we’re creating, or co-creating, the world we experience. No, we’re actually creating. This co-creation thing isn’t quite right, because we are God. It’s hidden inside us. We can’t not be everything.

God divides Himself completely, which means that there’s no division. God is always whole and complete in and of Himself. If we can catch up with it in us, then we’re also catching up with that which is at the center of the universe, which is the essence of everything.

We’re the Big Bang, or whatever science wants to call it. We’re all of that, but it’s hard to denote because we’re caught in a magic trick, like in your dream, where you have the baby, which is the essence, and you have the raw energy of things that capture your attention, which is the Jack Nicholson outer, and you’re somewhere in between.

So, we’re always caught in something like that. Our relationship to the outer is informed by our five senses, but our relationship to the inner comes through an emptiness connection from the heart, or from the essence. It’s that inner part that’s always making a journey, not what we’re doing in relation to our outer environment.

Again, it’s a big overall dream, at such a level and of such magnitude that it’s like a trance. It’s not something that you can take and say “I’ve got it!” in one fell swoop. But it is a good representation of how things really are.